BASARABIAN HILLS – Spirit of the Native Land

Basarabian Hills is a new one-man-band, coming from Făleşti of Republic of Moldova. Spirit of the Forest, who is their only member, formed this band in the end of 2011 and next year he released 2 albums. The debut album is entitled “Spirit of the Native Land” and it was co-released by Le Crépuscule du Soir Productions and Nihil Interit Records. It contains 3 long songs, lasting for 34 minutes and comes in CD-r edition with a pro-printed 4-page black & white cover in 7″ EP format.

The band plays ambient atmospheric black metal and most of its music is instrumental. The first track “Spirit of the Native Land” is a totally ambient song, with slow repetitive synths and a few natural sounds, a rather typical example of the genre. Without offering something new, it’s a decent and atmospheric effort. Luckily, things become much better in the other songs, the second track “A Night in the Forest“, which is almost 14 minutes long and the closing track “A Day in the Forest“. Both compositions keep the band’s ambient background, but this time melodic keys, distorted guitars and very raw, extreme black metal screams are added (I am not sure if he sings the lyrics at all!). So the whole result is much more interesting, variable and complete… The synths are beautiful, creating a wonderful magical enchanting atmosphere, with really nice melodies. Their sound has a definitely underground touch and their production can still take a lot of improvement, but it’s more than ok for a debut album and especially for the atmosphere of Basarabian Hills’ music.

Spirit of the Forest takes his inspiration from his homeland’s nature, especially forests and mountains and his lyrics are in English, included in the cover-booklet. In the end of 2012 Le Crépuscule du Soir Productions again with Nihil Interit Records co-released his second album “A Breath of the Wide Valley” and they also plan to release in 2013 his third work “In the Stillness of the Codrii“. You can find more info about Basarabian Hills and listen to their music in their official pages.